LGD Behavior Issues

[frustratedearthmother]

,Lgds should never be fed any type of blood raw meat.

I've been feeding raw for years also and my dogs are awesome guardians.

 

[Beekissed]

Was wondering how the training on your dog was going?

 

[rachels.haven]

Not so great, actually. Badger started having sizures a few days after I started this thread. He was diagnosed with epilepsy, began treatment and I was advised to find him an indoor home. The aggressive behavior was probably connected to it. A few days later out of the blue he became frenzied and attacked me and knocked me down and began going after my face, ears, and neck. My thick Carhartt coat and most of all my other dog saved me from being mauled by driving him off and holding him at bay so I could get up and go back inside. After that I decided he was too dangerous to re-home or turn over to a rescue and risk contributing to someone getting killed as he got larger so we put him down. State required he be tested for rabies.

His breeder is a piece of work and at the epilepsy diagnosis began spreading that I was a terrible dog owner, calling the police, our vet, and animal control telling them that we'd beaten him into siezures and that we were going to put him down at home, and threatening (probably empty) legal action if I told anyone about his condition because epilepsy is apparently most often genetic. Her actions made this whole mess particularly painful. The police and animal control were very kind to us and tried to be helpful once they knew what was going on so things could have been much worse...


So it kind of all went South and blew up. Im not sure we will be able to get a puppy from a responsible breeder ever with all that doubt and roumer hanging over us, even if I wanted to.

It was all in all a very painful, traumatic, expensive experience. I've decided we won't be looking to replace Badger any time soon, but I love my one good girl and we will always take good care of her. I am so grateful for the work she does keeping the goats and the barnyard safe and how sweet and gentle she is with my children as well as how intelligent and responsive she is with obedience work and behavior when we do ask her to be a normal dog.

So yes, that was how it went. Not so great.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm so sorry that it all went that way! The breeder needs to be reported on any LGD site you can do it on, but I know how you feel....who wants to deal with all the drama and bad feelings of someone like that? Best just to move past this horrible episode and keep that evil out of your life. Make no mistake, the truth will out and more of her pups will be diagnosed with epilepsy. Hopefully before a child gets mauled.

The account of him going after you like that was scary....could have turned out WAY worse. I don't blame you one bit for being leery of trying something like that again.

Thank you for the update, I was wondering if the dog had changed at all....very uncharacteristic for one of these LGD breeds to be that overtly aggressive, particularly towards their own humans.

 

[rachels.haven]

Thanks. I've reviewed her on Yelp, google, and on her fb but I can tell she's done this before and hidden or marked as spam all my efforts with exception of the Yelp one and after what she wrote in response to that I'm not sure I'd sell me a dog either. I just hope no one gets killed.

I agree with you though. That woman is evil and that level of darkness has no place in my life. Life is too short and all...

 

[Baymule]

My heart breaks for you and Badger. He should have never been born, he was a victim of an unscrupulous breeder as much as you and your family were. I can certainly see how this dreadful experience would sour you on another puppy, but please don’t let this ruin you. 99.9% of LGD’s are wonderful trustworthy partners in farming life. There are also grown, trained LGDs out there just like the one you have now. I am deeply sorry for the horrible experience you went through.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree with you though. That woman is evil and that level of darkness has no place in my life. Life is too short and all...

I agree!

That's growing more frequent in today's society and I too turn my back on engaging with such an element. God will take care of it and doesn't need me to do so.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

I've been having issues with my Komondor/Pyrenees cross puppy, Badger. He's 6 mo old, and around 80, maybe 90 pounds (too heavy to pick up and lift into a truck even rear or front at a time and can smash his paws into your chest now). Both parents were working with goats, chickens, alpacas, etc. Mom was about 80-90lbs, dad was a giant pyrenees.
Badger is fine with chickens most of the time.
A few months ago he started chasing goats. He caught one, held it down, and chewed its tail open. He would have killed it if I didn't stop him. Badger got uber punished and was no longer allowed in the goat pens without someone in arms reach and preferably him on a leash. I still keep him around goats, but he continues trying to beat them up and try to eat them.
Then he started going after the kids, so he can't be around kids unless there's an adult he respects present who is prepared to lay down the law FIRMLY again and again until he decides it's not wise to continue (usually only me).
Then he started trying to go after goats eating their alfalfa pellets in their buckets hung on the fence. He rips at the fence, damages it, and tries to rip their ears to get their heads out of the buckets, growing and snarling(there's usually food in his dish because it's around morning feeding time for EVERYONE). So he gets uber disciplined every time he approaches the fence while the goats are eating. The other dog just sits there and watches and (and gets frustration redirected at her when I don't let him misbehave, which she stops as soon as it reaches an annoying to her level). I've gotten it to the point he only does it when he can't see me, or thinks I can't stop him. This means I have to day in and day out stand over the goats or just out of the dog's sight until they are finished, ready to discipline the dog, who is getting rapidly larger, to prevent him from damaging the fencing and hurting goats in their own pens.

He tries to go after goats when they come out of the pens like they are prey or food-standard or dwarf, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't seem like this is changing even with consistency and me preventing the behavior. He just keeps at it like it's hard wired. Is he ever going to be trustworthy around livestock beyond chickens? Or people he knows? The worry that he's going to break into pens or stalls and kill goats for fun one day is starting to creep up on me. Will a dog that seems to want to treat animals like prey ever settle down and be trustworthy to live with stock? I'm starting to feel like I'm trying to turn a dog that's supposed to be a pet into a stock dog and maybe that the breeder shouldn't have thrown komodor into the mix. I know puppies are supposed to be crazy and nutty rule testers, but this is starting to seem a little excessive I'm concerned this isn't going to end well. What do I do? He's being more a goat liability than a goat protector. This doesn't feel like how things are supposed to go. My other LGD likes goats and little and weak things, but not for dinner. Is he ever going to change with training and even more consistency? Advice and honesty is welcome.

If you have issues with them.. send them here.. Hahaha!! I'll be more than happy to take care of them.. (im serious)

 

[rachels.haven]

Aw, I wish. Turns out his behavioral issues were probably linked to or at least compounded by his neurological issues. I didn't want my eventually 150-180 lbs dog to randomly kill someone or someone's child or wife if I passed him off onto a rescue or a loving home and I could have prevented it from happening. I'd rather have that spot in a rescue go to a dog that wasn't going to randomly decide he was going to eat someone's face off and change their life forever at best. It got very scary and very sad. I think I made the right, responsible choice though-just the very sad one.

 

[thistlebloom]

You did the absolute right thing.